{"id":4,"date":"2022-11-02T18:09:55","date_gmt":"2022-11-02T18:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/ahis\/?page_id=4"},"modified":"2025-11-25T12:44:56","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T20:44:56","slug":"home","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/ahis\/","title":{"rendered":"Art History at USC"},"content":{"rendered":" \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\n Why Study Art History at USC?\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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The Department of Art History at USC offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs that are designed to prepare students for teaching, research, and curatorial careers.\u00a0 It draws its strength from a dynamic and productive faculty in the fields of North American, Continental European, British, Mediterranean, Latin American, and Asian Art. Studying objects in their complex physical, cultural and intellectual contexts, our program is committed to a historically situated, materially engaged, and theoretically nuanced approach to art history and visual culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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\n \n \n Undergraduate Studies\n\n <\/a>\n <\/h3>\n \n \n
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Art history combines the study of art with the study of culture. The undergraduate major provides general knowledge of the history of art and, through upper-division courses, specialized knowledge in a variety of areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div>\n \n

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\n \n \n Graduate Studies\n\n <\/a>\n <\/h3>\n \n \n
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USC’s department of Art History offers its doctoral degree in a wide range of fields of Western and Asian art history, from ancient to contemporary.\u00a0 It is designed to prepare students for university teaching, research, and curatorial careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div>\n \n

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\n \n \n Prospective Ph.D. Students\n\n <\/a>\n <\/h3>\n \n \n
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USC is a diverse community of scholars in the heart of Los Angeles \u2014 a dynamic center for technology, health services, media and the arts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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USC Pacific Asia Museum<\/h3>\n \n \n
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A MOMENTOUS MOMENT IN TIME OF PASSAGE AND LANDING, 2024<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dave Young Kim (b. 1979) Acrylic Paint
\nFunding provided by Margaret Leong Checca<\/p>\n

This mural celebrates the journeys that diasporic communities have undertaken when leaving their homelands to find new places to nest. Muralist Dave Young Kim\u2019s A Momentous Moment in Time of Passage and Landing imagines over 30 birds traveling together in harmonious flight. Each bird pictured here is an official national bird from Asia and the Pacific Islands, representing the diverse communities who now call Southern California home.<\/p>\n

Kim explains that the message in a flock of birds moving together towards a common goal\u2014seeking a new home, settling in, and finding resources for survival\u2014is universally felt. Through this common experience and undeniable history, we are connected. These shared experiences are the basis of the human condition.<\/p>\n

Kim\u2019s vision aligns seamlessly with the USC Pacific Asia Museum\u2019s core mission to promote intercultural understanding in the service of elevating our shared sense of humanity. Through the amplification of local voices and narratives, this mural serves as a poignant testament to the diverse cultural legacies within the local AAPI community and affirms the museum\u2019s steadfast commitment to them.<\/p>\n

The museum is closed Monday and Tuesdays.
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Raymond Saunders: Flowers from a Black Garden <\/strong>
\nJune 26, 2026\u2009\u2013\u2009January 3, 2027<\/p>\n

Since the 1960s, artist Raymond Saunders (1934\u20132025) has developed a painting practice rooted in improvisation. Working across mediums, he combines everyday objects, found imagery, drawing, notational markings, and text in constellated compositions that blend abstraction and figuration against the complex backdrop of American history.<\/p>\n

The museum is closed Monday and Tuesdays.
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Norton Simon Museum<\/h3>\n \n \n
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Dear Little Friend: Impressions of Galka Scheyer<\/strong><\/p>\n

February 20, 2026 \u2013 July 20, 2026<\/p>\n

The German-born art dealer Galka Scheyer played a pivotal role in bringing European modernism to the United States. This focus exhibition looks at her legacy through the personal relationships she forged with both artists and supporters. Featuring portraits and ephemera, Dear Little Friend illuminates Scheyer\u2019s mission to promote the Blue Four: Alexei Jawlensky, Lyonel Feininger, Paul Klee and Vassily Kandinsky.<\/p>\n

Highlights include works from Scheyer\u2019s collection, featuring such artists as Maynard Dixon, Peter Krasnow, Beatrice Wood and Edward Weston. The exhibition also shows gifts she received from the Blue Four artists. The title, which refers to an affectionate salutation Feininger adopted in his letters to Scheyer, encapsulates the personal relationships and collaborative spirit that defined her enterprise in Europe and California.<\/p>\n

The museum is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
\nHours 12:00 am – 5:00 pm<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n

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Getty Center<\/h3>\n \n \n
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How to Be a Guerrilla Girl
\nNov 18, 2025\u2013Apr 12, 2026
\nResearch Institute Galleries<\/p>\n

How to Be a Guerrilla Girl presents the inner workings of the anonymous feminist art collective alongside a new commission at the Getty Research Institute. Drawing on the Guerrilla Girls\u2019 archive, the exhibition explores the steps the group took to create their eye-catching and humorous public interventions. The exhibition places the Guerrilla Girls\u2019 well-known posters in the broader context of their data research, protest actions, culture jamming, and distribution methods. Coinciding with the Guerrilla Girls\u2019 40th anniversary, the exhibition tells the story of their collaborative process and longstanding commitment to call for equity for women and artists of color in the art world.<\/p>\n

Getty Center
\nMuseum East Pavilion, Upper Level<\/p>\n

All exhibitions are included in your free, timed-entry reservation to Getty. Reservations are available six weeks in advance. Please note, there is a fee for parking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n

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The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA<\/h3>\n \n \n
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Haegue Yang: Star-Crossed Rendezvous
\nMarch 1, 2025 – August 2, 2026<\/p>\n

A unique collaboration between MOCA and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, this presentation brings together the work of internationally acclaimed visual artist Haegue Yang (b. 1971, Seoul) and her interest in and engagement with the late composer Isang Yun (1917-1995).<\/p>\n

The institutional collaboration unfolds over two distinct presentations: an exhibition featuring a sprawling installation Star-Crossed Rendezvous after Yun, 2024, at MOCA Grand Avenue, for its U.S. debut; and a concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall for a special one evening performance of Yun\u2019s Double Concerto, 1977, by the LA Philharmonic on March 10, 2026. This project bridges two distinguished cultural organizations and their unique architectural sites, connecting them through time and space, with this immersive sonic and visual experience.<\/p>\n

Prior to this special joint presentation, Yang and MOCA will organize a day-long symposium Star-Crossed Rendezvous: The Musical Legacy of Isang Yun, gathering leading musicologists, composers and historians on November 22, 2025 at the Ahmanson Auditorium in MOCA Grand Avenue.<\/p>\n

Haegue Yang: Star-Crossed Rendezvous is organized by Paula Kroll, Assistant Curator, with Clara Kim, Chief Curator & Director of Curatorial Affairs, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Lead support is provided by the MOCA Global Council and Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism of Korea, Korea Arts Management Service, and Korea Focus Support Program.<\/p>\n

Tuesday and Sunday, 11am\u20135pm.
\nAll visitors should reserve an online ticket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n

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Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art<\/h3>\n \n \n
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Grounded
\nSep 14, 2025\u2013Jun 21, 2026
\nBCAM, Level 2<\/p>\n

Grounded invites visitors to see land not just as terrain, but as a foundation for exploring ecology, sovereignty, memory, and home. Featuring 35 artists based in the Americas and the Pacific, the exhibition showcases 40 works, spanning the 1970s to today, with many on view for the first time. Works include Lisa Reihana\u2019s monumental video installation In Pursuit of Venus [infected] that reimagines colonial narratives from her perspective as a M\u0101ori artist; photographs and video by Clarissa Tossin, Laura Aguilar, and Ana Mendieta that trace the artists\u2019 bodies in dialogue with the earth; paintings and sculptures by Eamon Ore Gir\u00f3n, Courtney M. Leonard, and Rose B. Simpson that blend technology with Indigenous iconography and craft; and works by Leslie Martinez and Abraham Cruzvillegas that upcycle everyday materials to document consumption and to suggest possibilities for renewal. <\/p>\n

Museum is closed on Wednesdays<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n

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USC Fisher Musuem<\/h3>\n \n \n
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Ken Gonzales- Day: History\u2019s \u201cNevermade
\nAugust 19, 2025 \u2013 March 14, 2026<\/p>\n

Exploring cultural memory through his photographs, drawings, and paintings as well as through research and scholarship, artist, teacher, and scholar Ken Gonzales-Day (b. 1964) has contributed profound insights over his 30-year career to the understanding of race and place in the United States. This survey exhibition seeks to put the major series of photographic works, film\/video, drawings, and paintings in context, showing the deep political and theoretical concerns through which Gonzales-Day animates the range of works and pointing to larger American political issues in relation to which each series can be understood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n \n

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California Museum of African American Art<\/h3>\n \n \n
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Sadie Barnette: How to Fly
\nSeptember 30, 2025 – October 3, 2027<\/p>\n

How to Fly is a site-specific photomural by visual artist Sadie Barnette installed in CAAM\u2019s atrium. Born and raised in Oakland, California, Barnette incorporates photographs she has taken of locations across the state with pictures from her family archives. The installation includes references to Barnette\u2019s past artworks, as well as her signature motifs, such as glitter, rhinestones, cars, and plant life. The collection of images, ranging from a cousin\u2019s birthday cake to a well-worn copy of Toni Morrison\u2019s novel Jazz, are set at varying scales against an ombre rainbow backdrop, adding to the surfeit of color and pattern. Barnette has described herself as a \u201ckeeper of the past,\u201d someone whose role it is to tend to the historical archive, including its moments big and small. While the photomural serves to chronicle and monumentalize her story and family history with a sense of humor and play, it is also an invitation for viewers to see themselves, their loved ones, and the magic of the everyday in their own lives.<\/p>\n

Museum is closed on Mondays<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n

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Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens <\/h3>\n \n \n
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The eight directions of the wind: Edmund de Waal at The Huntington
\nOctober 18, 2025 October 26, 2026<\/p>\n

The Huntington presents the evocative works of acclaimed British artist and author Edmund de Waal in \u201cthe eight directions of the wind: Edmund de Waal at The Huntington.\u201d This yearlong exhibition features de Waal\u2019s site-specific installations at three iconic Huntington sites: the Huntington Art Gallery, the Chinese Garden, and the Japanese Garden.<\/p>\n

Huntington Art Gallery, Chinese Garden, and Japanese Garden<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n

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The Broad<\/h3>\n \n \n
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Robert Therrien: This is a Story
\nNovember 22, 2025\u2013April 5, 2026<\/p>\n

“Tables you could walk under, stacks of dishes as tall as columns, chairs that, seen from below, resemble towers. . . the artist behind that wonderland is Robert Therrien.” \u2014Giorgia Aprosio, Domus<\/p>\n

Opening November 22, Robert Therrien: This is a Story invites visitors to walk beneath oversized tables and chairs, encounter enormous hanging beards, and navigate stacked dishes that seem to shift before your eyes. Featuring over 120 works, many never before shown in a museum, this special exhibition offers a rare opportunity to engage with Therrien\u2019s playful explorations of memory, perception, and transformation.<\/p>\n

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Japanese American National Museum<\/h3>\n \n \n
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The Ireich\u014d: Book of Names
\nTouring the United States 2025<\/p>\n

Japanese American National Museum (JANM) is honored to partner with The Irei Project and USC\u2019s Duncan Ryuken Williams to travel The Ireich\u014d: Book of Names in conjunction with pilgrimages to all ten former War Relocation Authority (WRA) concentration camps, to other Department of Justice (DOJ) and Wartime Civil Control Administration (WCCA) incarceration sites, and selected cities across the US. The national tour launched in Washington, DC, in February at Day of Remembrance events at the US Navy Memorial and the Smithsonian\u2019s National Museum of American HIstory. <\/p>\n

The Ireich\u014d is the first comprehensive listing of persons of Japanese ancestry who were incarcerated in US Army, DOJ, WCCA, and WRA camps. The tour will help fulfill the vision of the Museum and The Irei Project to honor and recognize all 125,284 individuals in the Ireich\u014d and provide an opportunity for thousands of more people across the US to engage in this powerful and intimate act of racial repair and healing. <\/p>\n

The tour is also part of JANM on the Go, a series of programs and exhibitions presented across California, the US, and beyond during the renovation of the Museum\u2019s Pavilion in 2025 and 2026. At the close of the national tour in August 2026, the Ireich\u014d will be formally gifted by the Irei Project to JANM, where it will remain as part of JANM\u2019s permanent collection and a lasting monument to the formidable strength of the Japanese American community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n

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\n Featured Faculty\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n\n\n \n
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2025-2026<\/h3>\n \n
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